Dec 15 (Reuters) – Adaptive Biotechnologies said on Monday it has signed two non-exclusive deals with Pfizer to support research in rheumatoid arthritis and other immune-related diseases.
Shares of Adaptive were up over 3% in premarket trading.
Adaptive said it will earn up to $890 million for the rheumatoid arthritis asset, including upfront fees and milestone payments tied to research progress, product development and sales.
Pfizer will use Adaptive’s technology to analyze immune cells from rheumatoid arthritis patients and hunt for T-cell receptors, which are proteins on immune cells that act like scanners spotting disease triggers.
Adaptive will work on early detection, with Pfizer focusing on later development and commercialization, as per the agreement.
Pfizer has also licensed access to Adaptive’s large internal database that links T-cell receptors with the substances they recognize. The drugmaker plans to use the data to train its artificial intelligence models and support drug discovery across several disease areas.
Adaptive may potentially earn annual licensing fees and an upfront payment under this multi-year, non-exclusive data deal. Financial terms for the data license were not disclosed.
Seattle-based Adaptive Biotechnologies decodes the immune system through sequencing to enable diagnostics and therapies for cancer, autoimmune diseases and infections.
(Reporting by Padmanabhan Ananthan in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
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